For some reason or another, I ended up signing up for this race after seeing some of my friends registering for it. I figured that I would take it easy and save the legs for my upcoming trip to Lisbon, Portugal. There was no way that I would jeopardize getting injured before my trip to Europe where I'll be running a marathon. Also the left Achilles had been sore in the last couple of races so I definitely wasn't going to run hard.
Getting to this race was sort of a pain in the butt. First of all, just as the race director had warned us, people drive crazy fast on the 74 Ortega Highway. On the first pass, I missed the road that I had to turn in to head to the Blue Jay Campground. I had to drive a little ways down to make an u-turn at a turn off area. Even on the second pass, it wasn't easy as there were crazy drivers riding up the rear of my car as I was slowing down to make the turn. Second, it was not fun driving to the starting area in a Mini Cooper on bumpy roads full of craters. Made me miss my raised pickup truck. Once I made it to the final road leading up to the starting area, I parked along the side of the road behind a row of cars.
I jogged up to the starting area to pick up my bib and shirt. I like that you can pick up your stuff on race day with trail races. There's no race expo to deal with the day before. I jogged back to my car to grab my gear and to get ready. Both of my ankles were still a bit sore during the jog. Another thing I like about trail races is that the field is much smaller than a road race. There's no need to get in line super early before the start of race just to use the portapotty. For this race there was only one short line for the restroom/outhouse. They even had wet wipes for you to use after you're done taking care of business.
After some last minute instructions from the race director, it was off we go. After a short section on asphalt, we were running up fire roads and some gnarly steep single track trails. While I'm a road runner and love running road races, you just cannot beat the views that you get to take in while running a trail race. Photos do no justice to just how beautiful it was on these trails!
After about 4 hours of running and getting down into Holy Jim Canyon, I had to shut it down. It wasn't entirely by choice. My calves were sore, both Achilles were tight, and I was just plain tired. The long climb up Trabuco was really tough. Even though I was taking it "easy", I was still having to deal with leg cramps. A veteran runner (Jim) was nice enough to stick with me until we finally got to the top. It was quite the hike. Once we got to the aid station, he went on ahead while I ate and drank enough before heading back out.
I actually didn't start running again until I got back on the asphalt section. The uneven fire road was just giving my ankles all sorts of trouble even though it was mostly downhill. Goes to show that in the end I'm truly a road runner. I almost caught up to Jim at the finish line. After receiving my medal, I thanked Jim for his help. A couple of my friends that finished ahead of me cracked open a few cold ones and shared a Ballast Point Even Keel with me. There's really nothing more refreshing after a tough run than a good beer.
Finish: 7:20:56
Sunday 9/28 - Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k
What better way to recover from a grueling trail marathon than to run a 5k the next day. Stupid idea, I know, but hey anything for charity! Logistically, this race was somewhat hard to manage since I got there a little later than I had originally planned. Also the event was extremely popular so there were a ton of cars converging at Fashion Island. I opted to pick up my bib and shirt on race day and I had to rush just to get to the starting line on time. First I parked at the Corporate Park Dr parking lot just off of Newport Center Dr and PCH. I then walked up to the expo at the Pacific Life Insurance building. After picking up my packet, I had to hurry back to my car to change. Out of sheer coincidence I bumped into one of my coworkers. I then jogged back up to the starting line to get into the starting corral with a few minutes to spare.
Always good to see Rudy the announcer!
The race started promptly at 7:15am with my favorite race announcer sending us off. I started the race at a sub 8 min per mile pace. There were some foolhardy folks that bolted ahead of me as if it were a 100 meter dash. They definitely didn't look the type that would be running a sub 6 min mile for a 5k. A lot of them would fade drastically as we hit some significant inclines. I was pretty surprised that I was able to get my legs to move at a decent pace. During the last mile or so I came across protesters that were lined along the sidewalks with signs saying how Susan G Komen is not interested in finding a cure and is just out to make a profit. It would seem that people will protest just about anything these days. I did like that some signs were more informative; pointing out that there are natural remedies for dealing with cancer. All in all, I didn't think that this was the time or place for protests. The event was more for celebrating the survivors and honoring those that had lost their battle with breast cancer. There were no medals given out for participating in this race.
24:49 (8 min/mile pace)
Shirt and bib
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